Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 12 December 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

Cost of Doing Business in Ireland: Discussion (Resumed)

4:00 pm

Mr. Damian McDonald:

We understand that in Poland they are bringing in many Ukrainians to do some of manual work and those people were traditionally a source of employment to probably all of our sectors here. The dynamic is moving. This is not only an Irish problem. The improvements in the European economy are causing knock-on problems all over the place. I cannot stress enough how big an issue this is for some dairy farmers because of the stress involved. Cows must be milked twice a day and that is a huge tie. Farmers not being able to get relief labour is an increasing point of concern that we pick up at all our meetings around the country.